Nicola Gaston is a Professor and the President of the

New Zealand Association of Scientists The New Zealand Association of Scientists is an independent association for scientists in New Zealand. It was founded in 1941 as the New Zealand Association of Scientific Workers, and renamed in 1954Gregory, G., 2013. Not to be forgotten: New Ze ...

. She is a materials scientist who has worked on nanoparticles, and has spoken out on sexism in the scientific research establishment.

Academic career

Gaston was born in England to New Zealand parents. She has a PhD from Massey University. Gaston is a Professor in the Department of Physics at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

. She was previously a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences at

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well kno ...

. After being a Principal Investigator at the MacDiarmid Institute since 2010, she was appointed co-director in 2018. Her research interests include understanding how and why the properties of clusters of atoms, such as their melting points, depend on size and electronic structure. For example, adding an extra atom of gallium to a cluster can change its melting point by 100

Kelvins The kelvin, symbol K, is the primary unit of temperature in the International System of Units (SI), used alongside its prefixed forms and the degree Celsius. It is named after the Belfast-born and University of Glasgow-based engineer and phy ...

. She was awarded the CMMSE prize in 2016 for important contributions in the developments of Numerical Methods for Physics, Chemistry, Engineering and Economics.

Public profile

Gaston has been a strong advocate for women in science, arguing that science is sexist in national media. She argues that women are well-represented in junior university positions, even forming the majority in some scientific disciplines, but through unconscious bias or stereotyping are lost to academia, which ends up dominated by men in senior positions. One reason is the unforgiving nature of the research establishment to gaps in a CV caused by child-rearing. Gaston explored these impediments to the participation of women scientists in her blog, "Why Science is Sexist", and in 2015 published a book of the same name with Bridget Williams Books. As President of the

Gaston publicly criticised the adoption of the National Science Challenges, due to the possible conflicting roles of the Prime Minister's Science Advisor and the marginalisation of

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

. She has however praised the stability of funding provided for the National Science Challenges as well as the development of the National Statement of Science Investment in mitigating some of the concerns surrounding the adoption of the National Science Challenges.

Selected publications

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External links

*
Why Science is Sexist
(Gaston's blog)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaston, Nicola Living people New Zealand chemists New Zealand women chemists University of Auckland alumni Massey University alumni New Zealand nanotechnologists New Zealand women's rights activists Year of birth missing (living people) Academic staff of the University of Auckland